Accounting machine



Aug. 1941- w. A. ANDERSON 2,251,969

ACCOUNTING MACHINE Filed June 29, 1938 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 ail INVENTOR MLTER A. ANDERSON A 1941? w. A. ANDERSON I 2,251,969

ACCOUNTING MACHINE Filed June 29, 1958' s Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.2

INVENTOR WALTER A. ANDERSON BY ATTORNEY 1941- w. A. ANDERSON 2,251,959

ACCOUNTING MACHINE Filed June 29, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR WALTER A. ANDERSON TPM ATTORNEY Aug. 12, 1941. w. A. ANDERSON ACCOUNTING MACHINE Filed June 29, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 iNVENTQ-R WALTER ,4. ANDERSON ATTORNEY 1941- w. A. ANDERSON 2,251,969

ACCOUNTING MACHINE Filed June 29, 1938 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 f MIDLAND TRUST c0.

NAME; John Doe ADDRESS; 331 W. 97th. St.

CITY New York CHECKS DEPOSITS DATE NO-OFCKkt BAL. 1331-? DATE NMFCh'k:v BAL.

2,5oo.oo* AMT. MAY 137 2,500.00):

75.00 100.00 MAY 1057 2 2,525.00* MAY 1057 2 2325.001

1,250.75 225.00 3,000.00 MAY1537 2 5,049.2 5 09 05 MAY1537 z 5049.25x

INVENTOR ML TER A. ANDERJ ON ATTORN EY Patented Aug. 12, 1941 ACCOUNTING MACHINE Walter A. Anderson, Bridgeport, Conn.,'asslgnor to Underwood Elliott Fisher Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application June 29, 1938, Serial No. 216,461

1 Claim.

This invention relates to accounting machines of the key set, motor operated type, having a traveling paper carriage with mechanism thereon for controlling the functions of the machine during the lateral travel of the carriage.

The present invention is an improvement on the mechanisms disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 2,194,270 of Oscar J. Sundstrand, and my pending application Serial No. 92,164, filed-July 23, 1936.

In Patent No. 2,194,270 a device is provided to prevent the taking of a total until after a blank cycle is taken, a blank cycle in this instance being one in which no amount is set up on the type bars for printing. The blank cycle is necessary before a total taking operation in order to reset any transfer mechanism that was tripped during the preceding amount entering operation and to engage the crossfooter with the subtraction actuators instead of the addition actuators when the crossfooter contains a negative balance.

When the machine is used as an accounting machine, with the traveling paper carriage tabulating from column to column on a work sheet and automatically controlling the different machine functions, there are times when an item entered on the amount keyboard is printed on the work sheet but is not added into any of the totalizers. Such items may represent account numbers, invoice numbers, float items in bank posting, etc. It is obvious that during such operations the transfer mechanism is not tripped, so that with proper provision for negative totals these non-add operations can be used as blank operations when it is desired to take a total immediately thereafter.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a mechanism that makes it necessary to take a blank cycle before a total can be taken by use of the keyboard, but which does not make it necessary to take a blank cycle before a total can be taken by use of the carriage controls.

With this and incidental objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, the essential elements of which are set forth in appended claim, and a preferred embodiment of which is hereinafter described with reference to the drawings which accompany and form part of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective of an accounting machine embodying the present invention,

Figure 2 is a right side elevation showing the symbol printing type bar, the total and non-add keys, the connections between the total keys and the symbol printing type bar, the carriage controls relating to the total taking and non-add mechanisms, and the connections between these carriage controls and the keys,

Figure 3 is a perspective of one of the total keys,

Figure 4 is a right side elevation of parts of the mechanism for enforcing a blank cycle, the parts being shown in the position they occupy at the end of a blank cycle,

Figure 5 is a perspective of the mechanism for requiring a blank cycle, the parts being shown in the position they occupy just after the middle of an item entering operation,

Figure 6 is a perspective of the amount key lock for preventing, during accumulating operations, automatic engagement of the crossfooter with the subtraction racks when the machine contains a negative total,

Figure 7 is a top plan view of the parts shown in Figure 6, showing, also, portions of the keyboard,

Figure 8' is a right side elevation of the normalizer key and its connection to the carriage controls, and

Figure 9 shows a representative work sheet printed by themachine.

In the drawings, I represents an accounting machine, having a traveling paper carriage 2 movable laterally on a track 3, and provided with the customary roller platen 4. Printing is effected upon the work sheet by type bars 5. For accounting work, where the traveling carriage is movable laterally from column to column, the operations are initiated either automatically under control of the paper carriage, or manually by a motor bar 6. When the machine is to be used as an adding machine with the paper carriage stationary, a normalizer key I is depressed, after which the difierent machine functions are controlled by a row of keys 8, the operation being initiated by depression of the motor bar 6.

Referring to Figure 2, in using the row of keys 8 to control the machine functions, depression of these keys controls the extent of movement of a symbol type bar H to print the appropriate symbol. To control movement of type bar II the stems of the keys are pierced (see Figure 3) to receive the horizontal arms of bell cranks l2 pivoted in the machine frame. Rods l3 are connected to the vertical arms of the bell cranks and extend through openings in a support I4. By these parts, depression of a key projects the rear end of its associated rod l3 into the path of vertical movement of a rod l5 connected to type bar II by an arm [6. Since the rod l3, connected to each of the keys, lies at a different elevation, the keys stop the vertical movement of rod I5 at different points in its ascent to selectively position symbol printing type I! for printing.

When the machine functions are controlled automatically by the traveling paper carriage for regular accounting work, such as illustrated in Figure 9, movement of the carriage into its different columnar positions selectively lowers rods l8 (Figure 2). This operates bell cranks 2|, which in turn move their associated slides 22 to 25 forward in the machine. Since the forward ends of these slides project into openings in bails 21, this movement of the slides rotates the associated bails clockwise about their pivots 28. Links 3| connected to bails 21 and to keys 8, in the manner shown in Figure 3, cause the move ment of balls 21 to depress the associated keys and thereby move the associated rods l3 into effective position the same as if the keys had been depressed manually.

Referring to Figure 5, a locking means is provided to prevent depression of the total keys except after a blank cycle. This lock includes a slide 32 having projections adapted to lie directly under lugs 33 on the four total keys when the machine is at rest following an accumulating operation, A lever 34 is pivoted in the machine frame at 35 and is pulled downwardly by a spring 36 against a stud 3! carried by two cams 38 and 4| on the main drive shaft 42. A cam surface 43 on lever 34 is adapted to cooperate with a rod 44 secured to slide 32. An arm 45 of a bail 46 is pivoted on a rod 41 and has a finger 48 extending in an opening in lever 34. As disclosed in Patent No. 2,194,270, when an amount is set up on the keyboard and printed, arm 45 is moved forwardly in the machine and held in the position shown in Figure 5. With arm 45 in this position, movement of stud 3'! from its mid-cycle position shown in Figure 5 to its home position shown in Figure 4 permits spring 35 to lower lever 34, causing finger 48 to be caught in the left hand portion of the opening in lever 34. This retains lever 34 in a partially elevated position where cam 43 is not effective to move slide 32 to the rear, against the tension of a spring 5|, to the position shown in Figures 4 and 5. The projections on slide 32 therefore remain under lugs 33 and prevent the total keys from being depressed.

During a blank cycle, no printing is done, allowing arm 45 to move to and remain in its right hand position shown in Figure 4. When in this position, lever 34 is permitted to move to its lowermost position, as shown in Figure 4, which movement causes cam surface 43 to bear against rod 44 and move slide 32 to the rear to the position shown in Figure 4, where the projections on slide 32 are out of the path of lugs 33. It is now possible to depress the total keys for a total taking operation,

This locking means for the total keys is provided to prevent the operator from inadvertently depressing a total key before a blank cycle is taken, It is obvious, however, that when the machine is operating under control of the carriage this lock is unnecessary, since the control plate will not inadvertently take a total without first taking a blank cycle. Means is therefore provided to disable the total key lock when the machine is operating under control of the traveling carriage, so that the control plate can be set up in such a manner that it will take a total on an operation following one it. which it has caused an amount set up on the keyboard to be nonadded.

This means includes a lever 52 pivoted in the machine frame at 53 and tensioned upwardly by a spring 54 against rod 44. An upturned lug 55 on the left end of lever 52 holds slide 32 normally in its rear ineffective position shown in Figures 4 and 5. When slide 32 is held in this position, it is immaterial whether lever 34 is in its normal or partially raised position.

When it is desired to do straight listing work instead of accounting work, the operator depresses the normalizer key I (Figure 8) to disable the carriage controls. This is accomplished by a link 55 pivoted at 51 and connected to a vertically slidable plate 58, raising and holding plate 58 in a position immediately beneath the several levers 6| that must be depressed by the carriage for it to exercise its control over the functions of the machine. Depression of the normalizer key also disables the carriage tabulation and causes the paper to feed at every machine cycle. This structure is fully disclosed in Patent No. 2,194,270. The machine is now in condition for listing amounts under control of the amount keys and keys 8,

When operating the machine in this manner, it is obvious that the total key lock must be effective. To accomplish this, lever 52 is placed directly beneath the lower end of the normalizer key, so that depression of the latter lowers lever 52 and lug 55 from the path of rod 44. This permits slide 32 to operate under the control of lever 34.

In this type of machine a slide 62 (Figures 2 and 6) is mounted for forward and rearward sliding movement in the machine. This slide is controlled in such a manner that when the crossfooter contains a negative total, the slide moves forward in the machine, the movement causing engagement of the crossfooter with the subtraction racks during that cycle. This is for the purpose of taking what is commonly known as a true negative total, as distinguished from a complementary total. It will be apparent, however, that this slide must be prevented from moving forward during adding operations when the crossfooter contains a negative total, so that the amount set up on the keyboard will be added to rather than substracted from the crossfooter. For this purpose the machine is provided with a slide 63'guided by screw 64 and moved to the right by a spring 65. A rod 66 normally holds slide 63 to the left against the tension of spring 65. When slide 63 is in this position, slide 52 may move forward to engage the crossfooter with the subtraction racks. However, when a digit is set up on the amount keyboard, rod 56 is moved to the right, allowing a nose 51 on slide 63 to move into the path of slide 62. This prevents slide 62 from moving forward during accumulating operations and, in fact, during all operations where a number is indexed on the amount keyboard. This structure is fully disclosed in Patent No. 2,194,270.

With this lock in the machine, if it is desired to take a negative total during an operation immediately following a non-add operation, it is necessary that slide 62 move forward during the non-add operation, which makes it necessary that slide $3 be held in its left hand position during the non-add operation even though a number is indexed on the amount keyboard for that operation. To accomplish this, slide 63 is provided with a foot 68 having a beveled edge H cooperating with 9. lug I2 on a slide 13 that is moved forward in the machine whenever the traveling carriage operates its crossfooter nonadd control. By this construction, movement of the carriage into a columnar position where an amount is to be printed but non-added in the crossfooter, moves slide 13 forward, causing lug 12 to move slide 63 into, or retain it in, its left hand position during that operation, so that in the event the crossfooter contains a negative total, slide 62 is free to move forward to engage the cross footer with the, subtraction racks for the total taking operation to follow.

When this mechanism is used on the type of machine disclosed in Patent No. 2,194,270, it may be found desirable to omit the use of the subtraction symbol and the use of the two-colored ribbon, since, unless additional mechanism be provided, the printing of the non-added amount would appear in red, followed by the subtraction symbol.

Figure 9 shows an example of work in which the present improvement may be advantageously used. In posting the entries shown in Figure 9,

it is occasionally necessary to print a number in the column designated Float on 1000's. This is merely a code number used by the operator and is not accumulated in the crossfooter or registers. After the printing of this amount, time is saved by using the present mechanism to take the final total without an intervening blank cycle.

While the form of mechanism herein shown and described is admirably adapted to fulfill the objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that it is not intended to confine the invention to the one form of embodiment herein disclosed, for it is susceptible of embodiment in various forms all coming within the scope of the claim which follows.

What is claimed is: In a machine of the class described having a traveling paper carriage, means, including total keys and carriage controls, for controlling the taking of totals, a normalizer key for disabling the carriage controls, and a lock to prevent depression of the total keys, the combination of means to hold the lock in ineffective position, and means, including the normalizer key, to disable the holding means and render the lock effective when the carriage controls are rendered ineffective to control operation of the machine.

WALTER A. ANDERSON. 

